I don't claim to be an expert, but here are some ways of making gold on Gaiaonline with very little effort.

1. Daily Chance.

Log in every day, and click on the Daily Chance cart. Go to all the landing places; ie, My Gaia, Shops, World etc and click on the cart in all of these. Whatever you get, whether it's 20g, ink or an item, is FREE. Therefore, it's worth doing this every day. If you have a mule, then do this every day with your mule account, too. You will get various amounts of gold, fish bait, trash, bugs, flowers, Aquarium items, tokens and various basic avatar items, with a small chance of winning something big. If you don't want the items, then you can always sell them in the Marketplace.

2. The Marketplace.

If you haven't already, then get a trading pass. It will cost you 500g, but is worth it in terms of the gold you can get by selling stuff in the Marketplace. Like all that stuff you got in Daily Chance that you don't want, for example. Or prizes, like tickets and items, that you win playing games. Here's a little advice:

a) Buy low, sell high. In other words, if you're going to buy something off the Marketplace, it's worthwhile putting it on your Wishlist, then waiting for the price to drop. Buying something the second it comes out is never a good idea. If you have access to Gaia cash, it's always worthwhile buying something to sell for gold. zOMG! items and Aquarium items are always a good bet to make gold. Just don't go mad; it's only pixels, remember, and you don't need to bankrupt yourself in real life.

b) Don't overprice. Be realistic; no-one is going to pay you 1,000,000 gold for one token, not when they can buy it for 1g from someone else's store. The same goes for the standard clothing items, like the ones you get from the Daily Chance cart. Rather than pricing your chicken mask at 5,000 gold, price it according to the average price. That will ensure the item sells quickly, rather than constantly expiring and being returned to you. If you are unable to sell an item at all, and this concerns certain unpopular items, then either sell it at a knockdown price, or sell it back to the shop. Remember, if you got it for free, then it's all profit.

c) Try to stock your shop at all times. If you always, for example, have ink for sale in your store, certain Gaians might check your shop whenever they're online which means you get a quick sale. If you're lacking items, then play games to get tickets or items, or go to Towns to collect bugs and trash.

3. Games.

There are loads of games available; the trick is to pick the one that suits you the best. Below is a list of games.

a) zOMG! Gaia's interactive game. I don't play this, cuz it lags too much on my computer and I'm not really interested in interactive games, but if you play games like WoW regularly, you might want to check this game out. Go here for more information. Pro: You can collect a lot of items to sell for gold.Con: If you're not interested in this kind of game, it's not really worth it. Plus it has a lot of lag.

b) Pinball. Basically, this is pinball; you should know how to play it. You can get gold grants, but it's a bit difficult to play at first. Once you get used to the controls, you might want to check it out.Pro: You are guarenteed a gold grant with every play.Con: Sometimes your ball gets lost unfairly, with no way of preventing this.

c) Wordbump. You have to make words and get the gold word to the top, not letting it drop to the bottom, or else it's game over. You get a gold grant with every level, and an item grant every thirty levels, plus school credits every so often, which can be exchanged at H R Wesley's for items.Pro: Gold grant with every level, plus it's fairly straightforward to play.Con: Lags horribly in later levels.

d) Slots. You put tokens in the slot machines and get a chance of winning tickets. You can use the tokens you get with Daily Chance, or buy them on the Marketplace where you can often get them cheaper than in the shop.Pro: Very easy to play.Con: Chance of winning big very small.

e) Blackjack. Plays like regular blackjack and uses tokens to win tickets. If you don't know how to play blackjack, practice this and you should pick it up in no time.Pro: Extremely good chance of winning tickets.Con: Sometimes you get unfair hands where you don't stand a chance of winning.

f) Jigsaw. Easy peasy. You put the puzzle together for a gold grant, and possibly an item, too. Choose from different levels of difficulty; the higher the level, the more gold you get.Pro: Very easy to play.Con: There's a bug that means that you sometimes do not get the gold grant.

g) Rally. Race your car around the track to get a prize. You can also go there to chat with friends.Pro: Very easy to play.Con: To stand a chance, you need to spend a lot on your car. Plus there are script kiddies and cy'berers around.

h) Love Factori. A puzzle where you connect bolts and circuits in order to win gold. A little known and fairly new game, this one.Pro: Easy to play.Con: Gets a bit dull after a while, plus you can end up getting stuck.

i) Fishing. Go to one of the lakes to catch fish, which you can then either sell on the Marketplace, or go to the relevant shop to trade in for gold and items.Pro: Easy to play.Con: Like Rally, you have to put in a lot of gold to get a good rod and good bait. Can get dull, too.

Towns.

Towns is the Gaian world where you can wander around, collecting things and chatting to people, too, as you go. Kick trees, bushes and rocks for gold; just stand next to the tree, bush or rock and click. You can also pick up trash, flowers and bugs to make into items, bouquets and ink. I would recommend only picking up the bugs if your purpose is just to make gold, as ink retails for far more than the other two. The only problem with Towns is the fact that there can be script kiddies, cy'berers and beggers within. If you are bothered by any of these, just pull up the map and go to another section of Towns, or restart it.

Aquariums.

I tend to use my tank solely for fun. It's very difficult to create a tank solely for making gold, and requires a lot of money spent on it, so it's best not to bother. Create a tank for fun, and put it in your signature so you can reap the benefits if someone plays your tank in Booty Grab. You should also visit your tank every day to feed your fish and click on the Overseer, who will give you either a gold grant, or an item. This seems to be completely random with no rhyme or reason behind it. I've gotten pink giftboxes one day, and something pants like the Nautilus the other day. It's basically a game of chance, like the Daily Chance cart.

Booty Grab is a game where you carry a shell on your head and try to catch as much gold as possible that falls from the fish. Whatever you catch, you get to keep. Sometimes, fish drop items too, like giftboxes or Aquarium fish. If giftboxes are being dropped, only catch one; there's a bug that ensures you lose everything, gold and items, if you catch two. Go to the Aquarium forum and click on the glowing threads. This is one of the easiest ways to make gold.

There are other ways to make gold on Gaia, like making art for example, but these are by far the easiest.

A little more to add on the topic of zOMG. It's a very good place to go if you're trying to make gold. Although yes, as Miranda says, it's laggy, if you do it right you can earn lots. (That's how I quested my Dainty Porridge from scratch, which is 800k)

1k = 1,000; 200k = 200,000

At the level of 4.5~5.0, go to Ba'ssken Lake. One round of Papa Saw on hard gets you 5~7k. If you do this repeatedly, you can earn a lot of gold. One day, I got 200k gold because I spent six hours in there. (So that's approx. 100k / three hours, that's 30k~ per hour) If you're too tired of it, just get 50k a day, which is 10 rounds.

The Hive is an okay place to go (10.0) if you're bored of Papa Saw. It's required for a quest, and goes on forever (well, until you die, anyway; I've only been to round 50 but my friends have been to round 75)

But better yet is Shallow Seas, if you are playing for rings. The rings that drop there are often at least 8.0, plus you do get around 30k per round from the treasure chests and everything (although the rounds here are often difficult; you'll need an experienced crew and to be a little experienced yourself.)

I've heard that they removed all of the ring drops, though, so I'm not sure if they drop anymore... I haven't played for a while.

OK; I checked out zOMG! out of curiosity and it is a gold mine. XD You can temporarily lower your level in the options menu if you want to go round and do repeat quests that are below your skill level.

Also, repeating the bosses over and over will net you orbs and gold; suggested bosses to repeat are the aforementioned Papa Saw, plus She-Wolf, the Shrine and Duneslam.